Hatchet Man - Richard ben Veniste's work on the 9/11 Commission...

The Weekly Standard ^ | 04/15/2004 | by Hugh Hewitt

[So Cal Rocket]

RICHARD BEN VENISTE threw a knife at John Ashcroft and hit Jamie Gorelick between the shoulders. Thus did the most irresponsible member of an increasingly irresponsible commission finally draw some blood, even though his victim was unintended.

Ben Veniste's conduct has grown wilder as the Nielsen ratings attached to the proceedings have increased. Democrats thought they were getting a skilled prosecutor with Watergate and other fine show trial credentials, but the sun is setting on BV's career, and that does funny things to a man in D.C. The same syndrome of packaged outrage and bad hair cuts has affected Bob Kerrey as well. But in ben Veniste the histrionics-cum-political vendetta have been most obvious.

A week ago, ben Veniste tried to rattle Condoleezza Rice and failed. "I thought ben Veniste was terrible," said the New Republic's Peter Beinart on my show after Rice's testimony. "Ben Veniste is the most partisan Democrat on the commission, and I wish he wasn't on the commission."

When reliable pundits of the center-left are throwing bricks at ben Veniste, then it's clear he's not fooling anyone. But it's too late to stop him from sabotaging the commission. The most obvious bit of his handiwork concerns the new case against Jamie Gorelick.

ON TUESDAY Attorney General John Ashcroft arrived at the 9/11 Commission hearings carrying a 1995 Department of Justice memo, initialed by then Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, which cemented in place the mythical "wall" between counterintelligence and criminal investigations, a wall that at least constricted, and often cut off, the intra- and interdepartmental flow of information about terrorists. Yesterday House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner called on Gorelick to resign, stating that "[s]crutiny of this [wall] policy lies at the heart of the commission's work. Ms. Gorelick has an inherent conflict of interest as the author of this memo and as a government official at the center of the events in question."

An observer might be tempted to dismiss Sensenbrenner's demand as partisan, except for ben Veniste's argument from the Ashcroft questioning. Just before he raised the paranoid theory that John Ashcroft had stopped flying commercial airplanes prior to September 11--and just before John Ashcroft blew away the slander with a detailed account of how often he and his wife did in fact fly commercial aircraft before September 11--ben Veniste offered up an excuse for raising such desperate conspiracy theories.

Ben Veniste cited the Warren Commission, and its failure to publicly raise and discredit every possible theory about the assassination of President Kennedy, leading, ben Veniste implied, to decades of conspiracy theories about the tragedy and to suspicion of the Warren Commission's work product. "[W]e are mindful," ben Veniste lectured, "that part of the problem with the Warren Commission's work on the Kennedy assassination was the failure to address certain theories that were extant and much of the work was done behind closed doors." And then he launched the nutty "why didn't you fly" question at Ashcroft. One of two things must thus be true: Either ben Veniste was trying to bleed Ashcroft and didn't really believe this Caesar's-wife theory requiring commissions to be transparent and thorough in order to be free of conspiracy mongers down the road. Or Gorelick has got to go. After all, what greater conspiracy can there be than for one of the potentially responsible parties to September 11 to be sitting in judgment on the root causes of the attack? Ben Veniste has not yet called for Gorelick to resign, but given the frequency with which he turns up on television talk shows, the opportunity should arise soon enough to ask him for his views on the matter.

OF COURSE ben Veniste will probably not enforce his own code on Gorelick, a fellow Democrat. From the moment that ben Veniste launched into an unscripted fit over the release of the Predator drone's video of bin Laden from the fall of 2000, his mission has been clear--to protect the Clinton administration from accountability. The video was proof that the United States had bin Laden in our sites well before September 11, 2001 and had refused to pull the trigger, so ben Veniste attacked the evidence, not its inescapable implication. And so he has also attacked every Bush administration figure with a partisan fury that stuns the people of goodwill on the left.

Fifty years from now, the conspiracy theorists will be wondering what ben Veniste set out to hide and whether he accomplished his mission. Too late to change that now, but speculation about ben Veniste's cover-ups will come to rival the cottage industry surrounding Dallas. A great fate for one of prosecutors of Watergate.

- Hugh Hewitt is the host of The Hugh Hewitt Show, a nationally syndicated radio talkshow, and a contributing writer to The Daily Standard. His new book, In, But Not Of, has just been published by Thomas Nelson.

[cinFLA]

BV was the 'impeachment lawyer' protecting Clinton in the senate procedings. He was also the lawyer of a very famous 'drug dealer' that got executed while in protective custody. Trivia. Who was this drug dealer?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Jamie Gorelick. You've just been outted.

[Lexington Green]

Ben-Veniste is a huge mafia bagman.. funneling drug funds to politicians... close personal associate to Alvin Malnik - successor to Myer Lansky... see BARRY AND THE BOYS

[Eric in the Ozarks]

...ah, Bill Clinton's brother ?

[Lexington Green]

famous 'drug dealer' that got executed while in protective custody. Trivia. Who was this drug dealer?

Barry Seal

[Coop]

RICHARD BEN VENISTE threw a knife at John Ashcroft and hit Jamie Gorelick between the shoulders.

I nominate for Quote of the Week!

[cinFLA]

Close. It does have an "Arkansas Connection"!

[Badeye]

"Fifty years from now, the conspiracy theorists will be wondering what ben Veniste set out to hide and whether he accomplished his mission. Too late to change that now, but speculation about ben Veniste's cover-ups will come to rival the cottage industry surrounding Dallas. A great fate for one of prosecutors of Watergate. "

Hewitt apparently understands the end result of the Warren Comission, and the lessons learned, far better than Beni does.

As for the conspiracy theories, my favorite for shear comedy is the one that tries to say the Pentagon was not hit by an airliner, in spite of dozens of witnesses, in spite of the telephone and light poles knocked INWARD toward the Pentagon, in spite of the cell phone conversations by the doomed passengers on the flight.

Whenever I read that particular one in various forums around the web I just shake my head and wonder if the real problem in this country is the internet gives bitter "shut ins" a place to vent their own self loathing and rage about their own fate in life, and a means to concoct wild eye'd theories of "doom" as a way of self fullfillment.

Then again, maybe they are just wacko's, garden variety wacko's, one step short of pushing a stolen grocery cart loaded with their "valuables".

[rj45mis]

One major problem is...these dems have no conscience. When they're confronted with their transgressions, they continue to heap coals upon their heads with their lies and deceit. It amazes me how they have been able to convince so many Americans that Bush is a liar when they foisted on us 8 years of the most dishonest administration in our history.

[cinFLA]

Correct. During the impeachment I tried to pursue this connection with my then Senator, Sarbanes, and his office at first refused to respond. Upon my declaration that I would write a letter to the editor about their non-response, they responded with a one-word "YES" that it was the same BV and made it very clear that they did not want to ever hear from me again on the issue.

[Smartass]

Richard Ben-Veniste, and Jamie Gorelick have donkey
dung in their veins. The 9-11 commission couldn't
have had more hardened DumboRats than these two.
One just has to look at their past records to see where
this commission came from, and where it will be heading.
The end report, will be yet, another waste of tax payer
dollars.

[cinFLA]

"Fifty years from now, the conspiracy theorists will be wondering what ben Veniste set out to hide and whether he accomplished his mission. Too late to change that now, but speculation about ben Veniste's cover-ups will come to rival the cottage industry surrounding Dallas. A great fate for one of prosecutors of Watergate. "

What did Barry Seal do and who did he know? Only BV knows and he will take it to his grave.

[Libertina]

CAll Melissa at the 9-11 Commission office and let her know (politely) 202.331.4060

[connectthedots]

The video was proof that the United States had bin Laden in our sites well before September 11, 2001 and had refused to pull the trigger, so ben Veniste attacked the evidence, not its inescapable implication.

Author should have used 'sights'.

[OldFriend]

Agree.......this quote should be atop the list for the entire commission process.

[RightOnline]

Interesting. Supporting evidence?

[RAY]

Barry Seal was not being protected. However, after cooperating with the feds, being instrumental in nailing Ortega and then sentenced - he was put in a position by a federal judge so that he could not be protected or protect himself.

We don't and shouldn't condone Barry Seal's crime, but the U.S. Government, it seems, allowed his assassination by the South American drug lords.

[Lexington Green]

Read BARRY AND THE BOYS -

[smiley]

Freepers were already on top of this before it became news.